By DAN K. THOMASSON, Scripps Howard News Service

As the nation seems to be marching inexorably toward universal health care, did you ever wonder why medical costs have grown beyond all other goods and services? Why is it that this nation ranks only 20th in the quality of its care despite those 12 percent annual increases that have been routine since the advent of Medicare?

Those expensive non-crucial items -- also known as "earmarks" -- lawmakers stick into nearly every spending bill to help assure their reelection would be better labeled "nose marks" for all those snouts in the public trough. Even the fact deficit spending is expected to reach unprecedented levels hasn't deterred the collective gluttony.

If you are a prominent politician with big time ambitions, say like running for president, and someone approaches you about delivering your party's response to the incumbent chief executive's address to the Congress, State of the Union or otherwise, you probably should come down with a sudden case of laryngitis.

I got a little drunk last night for the first time in a long time.
That's what can happen when one loses a particularly dear old friend who has been with you through 50 years of your professional life, a steady, unswervingly loyal pal with whom it was a privilege to be associated.

The words were upbeat and inspiring and the follow up budgetary details so startling one can only wonder how in the world most of it can be accomplished with a treasury that is as much underwater as half the stocks in everyone's 401(k) or the value of their houses as compared to their mortgages.

With psychology playing such a major role in the deepening world economic crisis, it is more urgent than ever for those assigned with trying to find a way out to at least display a stiff upper lip. Yet politicians can't resist doing what they do best, shooting off their mouths and producing dire consequences.

The crowd was mainly gray, not graying, but gray and more than a few of them pushing into the big auditorium showed signs of infirmity -- at least until the music began. Then the toll of years began to give way to the memories of youth.

The bad news for those planning to begin college at George Washington University next fall is that they will have to pay 3 percent more than those who entered last year. The good news is that the $41,610 bill will be frozen for the next five years.

Does anyone remember Eleanor Holm?

It is obvious that tens of millions of Americans thought naively that Barack Obama's election would usher in a new era of civility and bipartisanship, a chance for a divided nation to come together in a spirit of political cooperation to deal with the nation's pressing needs. They now know better.